Mount materials or workpieces onto production equipment.
Little of this can be handed to software today.
This happens in the physical world, so software agents do not touch it. Automation here means robotics and machinery, which is a different market from the one mapped on this site, on a much slower clock.
| How automatable | Barely automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Physical, manual and inspection work |
| Jobs that do it | 36 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | None |
| O*NET activity | Handling and Moving Objects (4.A.3.a.2) |
What could do this work.
Nothing in our landscape addresses this work. That is the honest answer rather than a padded list: this activity needs a person present, or a machine rather than a software agent.
Who does this work.
36 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Adhesive Bonding Machine Operators and Tenders
- Automotive Body and Related Repairers
- Computer Numerically Controlled Tool Operators
- Cutters and Trimmers, Hand
- Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Drilling and Boring Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Etchers and Engravers
- Gem and Diamond Workers
- Glass Blowers, Molders, Benders, and Finishers
- Grinding and Polishing Workers, Hand
- Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, and Buffing Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Heat Treating Equipment Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers
- Lathe and Turning Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Laundry and Dry-Cleaning Workers
- Milling and Planing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Multiple Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians
- Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operators
- Plating Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Print Binding and Finishing Workers
- Printing Press Operators
- Sawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Wood
- Semiconductor Processing Technicians
- Sewing Machine Operators
- Shoe and Leather Workers and Repairers
- Shoe Machine Operators and Tenders
- Structural Metal Fabricators and Fitters
- Textile Winding, Twisting, and Drawing Out Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Tire Builders
- Tool and Die Makers
- Tool Grinders, Filers, and Sharpeners
- Upholsterers
- Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers
- Woodworking Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Except Sawing
Work that goes with it.
O*NET groups these under “Position workpieces or materials on equipment”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
Method. The activity, its taxonomy placement and the occupations that perform it come straight from the public-domain O*NET 30.3 database. The automatability band is ours: we map each of O*NET’s 41 generalized work activities to how much of its output current software can produce, assuming a person still reviews and owns the result. It is a coarse three-way judgment on purpose. A precise-looking percentage here would be invented.